Members of the public within Thika Central Business District on Thursday ran for their lives after a Kenya Power transformer blew in a deafening explosion.
The transformer, located directly opposite the busy Tuskys Chap Chap supermarket, exploded after a machine being used at a construction site accidentally fell on live wires causing a short circuit.
The evening incident caught members of the public by surprise causing panick. People ran helter-skelter with most of them fearing that it was a terror attack. The explosion was followed by a blackout in all the adjacent buildings.
The Kenya Power engineering team responded in time and it was able to deal with the problem in less than 45 minutes.
Eng John Kamau of Kenya Power who rushed to the scene immediately said: “We switched off the main supply immediately and averted any further damage.”
Members of the pubic caught in the melee said that most of them took off without finding out what had happened.
“The explosion was followed by deafening sounds and we thought we had been attacked by terrorists,” said a shaken Mary Njuguna who works in a cyber cafe near the explosion site.